There has been much effort made of late in the field of commercial production diamond. There are many high pressure processes such as plasma torches that deposit diamond on only a very small surface area. If the flame is spread out over a large surface area, the diamond quality suffers dramatically. Of the different techniques, microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition has produced the highest quality diamond films over acceptable surface areas.
Most such microwave plasma enhanced CVD processes operate at total microwave power of approximately 1,500 watts and at pressures of up to 50 Torr. The feed gas is typically a dilute hydrocarbon, for example 1% to 5% methane. Sometimes, small amounts of oxygen are added to the feed gas. Such systems deposit diamond at growth rates of about 2 microns per hour. However, such low deposition rates have kept the process from becoming commercially feasible.